If your personal stuff is not in a good place, that’s going to seriously effect and bleed into your business. It’s going to negatively impact how you run your business and it’s going to stun your business growth. The two kind of go hand in hand.

• The first thing I want to mention is health. A very common thing that happens to a lot of us creative business owners is burnout. You need to avoid getting burnt out like the plague. Make sure you’re getting enough sleep. Self-care is very important, so if that means taking some time out of your weekend or taking a day off when you can, you need to do that. Personally, I like to just do the mall walk because I live five minutes away from the Mall of America here in Minnesota. See how you can at least once a month arrange to have your kids get taken care of and do something good for yourself. Make it a priority because it’s very important. Without self-care you’re going to get burnt out very quickly. Without your health, you won’t be able to run your business in the way that will bring you any success anytime soon.Also think about what you consume, what you eat, and what you drink. Exercise even if it’s just taking a walk once a week, even if it’s going to the gym once a week it’s still way better than not exercising at all.

  Before I started exercising I was getting terrible pain in my lower back, my shoulders, and on my neck, because I was doing so much work on my computer and sculpting every piece of jewelry for my business. I went to the chiropractor and he fixed me temporarily, but over time all the pains just came back. It was when I started exercising on a more regular basis that I started to feel these problems going away.

  When it comes to eating and drinking my number one belief is that moderation is key. You can eat whatever you want, really. You can drink alcohol, drink soda, eat a 20-ounce ribeye, and eat a frozen pizza just make sure you’re not doing it every single day. I don’t believe in extremes, so as long as you have moderation you can do whatever you want and still be healthy.

• Personal relationships with friends. I know this is going to hit home for some of you and it’s not easy to say this either, but you are the average of the three to five people you hang out with the most. The more time you spend with these people, the more they start to influence you and the more their beliefs and opinions brush off on you.

  For example, when I started hanging out with my mastermind friend Stacey, the more I hung out with her the more I started to adopt the things that she says. She likes to say “Party!” Even I started saying it after some time! Not because I wanted to copy her, but because of her influence over me.Your relationships with friends and family not only manipulate the way you think and act, they also have a huge influence on where you take your business. I want you to find like-minded friends who will not coddle you. You need friends who are even better versions of yourself, people who you want to be, and people who can be your role models. Surround yourself with people like them and you will start to see you will push yourself to be an improved version of yourself.

  I know it’s sometimes hard to find new friends because not everyone wants new friends. When my husband and I moved to Minneapolis, Minneapolis being a city where most people are friends with people who they’ve grown up with or gone to high school with, it was really hard to break into some of these circles of friends. You can try things like https://www.meetup.com/ or ask in Facebook groups and forums to see if anyone else who shares a common interest lives near you.

  Personally, I will say it’s not always easy to surround yourself with people who are at a better place than you are. They might say things that will hurt your feelings, but deep down you know are true and know you need to do in order to move forward in your life or in your business.

  Try to separate yourself from people who poison your thoughts, who hold you down, who are always negative, and always complaining about things but never doing anything about it. Life is too short to spend your time surrounded by negative people. Over time you will slowly become just like them.

  This reminds me of American Idol. I don’t know if you watch it, but ten years ago when I was still living with my parents, we used to watch American Idol pretty religiously. At the time we didn’t have all these singing competitions out there, so American Idol was our choice of entertainment. In every episode, there’s always one or two contestants that are just ridiculed. The camera crew will follow them around, interview them, interview their friends, talk to them, and say “Why are you here? Why are you auditioning for American Idol?” They would always respond by saying their friends told them they were amazing singers and they were who encouraged them to come audition. They build up such a story and you can’t wait to hear them sing, but when they go in front of the judges they can’t even hold a pitch. It’s unfortunate because you don’t need your friends to coddle you and tell you that you’re good at something when you’re really not. You need friends who will nurture you and can push you to be a better version of yourself. Otherwise, you are going to go through life with a false perception of your own reality and you’re going to be living a lie.

  I believe that every single person on Earth is talented and skilled at doing certain things. It’s just a matter of figuring out what those things are and in order to do that, you just have to try a lot of different things. If you’re trying to sell paintings but you realize you’re not really good at it, that doesn’t mean you may not be a good sculptor. Personally, I consider myself a sculptor but I can’t paint or draw to save my life. What’s unfortunate is that not everyone will live their life having found out what they’re actually good at doing, simply because they didn’t try.

  I think you can have a much better, more fulfilled, and happier life if you can start to distance yourself from people who are not good for you and surround yourself with people who are. One person is all it takes to make a huge difference in your life.

If you have any thoughts, stories or ideas you want to share go ahead and go to www.creativehivevip.com and we can talk more over there.